LIV Golf confirm format tweak for $50m team championship

LIV Golf have confirmed they have tweaked the format for their season-ending team championship. 

The 13-team league will bring the curtain down on their third full season later this month in Michigan. 

But it will only feature 12 teams as the PIF-backed breakaway will stage a play-in match between the bottom two sides. 

The winner will advance to the quarterfinals at The Cardinal at Saint John's over 22-24 August. 

This year, the team championship will have a total prize purse of $50m, with the winning quartet taking home a share of $14,000,000. 

As things stand, the play-in match would see the Majesticks take on the Iron Heads. 

The round will consist of two singles matches and one foursomes match, with a total of three points available. 

Elsewhere, the league have confirmed there will be no more byes for the top-ranked four teams. 

"I think you'll see a few teams get knocked out that you maybe wouldn't expect," former Open champion Cameron Smith said. 

Chile's Joaquin Niemann currently leads LIV's individual standings, with Jon Rahm in second and Bryson DeChambeau third. 

Rahm's Legio XIII leads the team component, with DeChambeau's Crushers second and Sergio Garcia's Fireballs in third. 

Jon Rahm speculates on further changes

Elsewhere, former Masters champion Rahm has outlined what steps he believes need to be taken for LIV to get the green light with their recent application for world ranking points. 

LIV applied for Official World Golf Ranking accreditation in July 2022 but were rejected in November 2023. 

The league withdrew their application altogether which infuriated a contingent of LIV players, according to the American golfer Hudson Swafford. 

Swafford spilled the beans on what transpired behind the scenes at LIV on a recent appearance on GOLF's Subpar. 

The former PGA Tour pro is now serving a five-year ban. 

LIV renewed their bid for OWGR points before this year's Masters. 

Rahm told reporters before this week's event in Chicago that LIV need to be allowed into the system now. 

"I think the way I see it, at least right now, there's a process to hopefully enter those world-ranking points and at least get our foot in the door," Rahm said.  

"And then once we're allowed, we can see what changes can be made to earn as many as possible, keeping the integrity of what LIV Golf is about.

"Examples of that would be, let's say with whatever we're doing currently we get 20 points. If you add a fourth round, you go to 25.

"Is that worth it? Is that not worth it? If you add a cut, things like that. Right now with as little players as we have, I don't see a cut working very well, and with the teams I think it would be a little odd.

"But if the league were to expand and let's say you go to 15 teams, you have 60 players, now you can actually possibly make something work."